Did you know?
There’s a glitch in the etymology of glitch—it may come from the Yiddish glitsh, meaning “slippery place,” but that’s not certain. Print use of glitch referring to a brief unexpected surge of electrical current dates to the mid-20th century. Astronaut John Glenn, in his 1962 book Into Orbit, felt the need to explain the term to his readers: “Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it.” Today, the word can be used of any minor malfunction or snag. If you’re a gamer you might even take advantage of a glitch that causes something unexpected, and sometimes beneficial, to happen in the game.
Examples of glitch in a Sentence
Juhi Wadia, PC Magazine, 17 Apr. 2026
Ethan Ding sees the last decade of SaaS as a historical glitch.
—Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 17 Apr. 2026
Global sales opened on April 9 and many of the problems, including website glitches and unavailable tickets, persisted.
—Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2026
The acrylic-yarn palette of fuchsia, cyan, chartreuse, and orange is closer to a slot machine mid-spin or a glitch on a TV screen than to traditional patterning.
—María Carri, Artforum, 16 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for glitch
Cite this Entry
“Glitch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glitch. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
glitch
noun
